The Bodily Unconscious in Psychoanalytic Technique explores how corporeality and body memory can be more strongly integrated into psychoanalytic work. This book brings together an international range of contributors to consider the bodily unconscious from different theoretical perspectives. Concepts from the work of Freud, Bion, Winnicott, Lacan, Laplanche, and Fonagy are developed with the aim of incorporating body memory into psychoanalytic technique. The contributors consider how severe and complex clinical states, dominated by bodily symptoms and disorganization, can be approached with methods that go beyond classical interpretation. The book includes ten case histories and discussion of key themes including transference and countertransference, feelings of corporeality and bodily sensations, and features clinical material throughout. The Bodily Unconscious in Psychoanalytic Technique will be essential reading for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in practice and training, particularly those interested in somatic approaches.

The psychoanalytic unconscious is a slippery set of phenomena to pin down. There is not an accepted standard form of research, outside of the clinical practice of psychoanalysis. In this book a number of non-clinical methods for collecting data and analysing it are described. It represents the current situation on the way to an established methodology. The book provides a survey of methods in contemporary use and development. As well as the introductory survey, chapters have been written by researchers who have pioneered recent and effective methods and have extensive experience of those methods. It will serve as a gallery of illustrations from which to make the appropriate choice for a future research project. Methods of Research into the Unconscious: Applying Psychoanalytic Ideas to Social Science will be of great use for those aiming to start projects in the general area of psychoanalytic studies and for those in the human/social sciences who wish to include the unconscious as well as conscious functioning of their subjects.

Researching the Unconscious provides an exposition of key issues in the philosophy and methods of the social sciences that are relevant to psychoanalysis, both as a clinical practice and as a human science. These include the debates initiated by Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, the "actor-network theory" of Bruno Latour, the ideas of philosophical realism, distinctions between "meaningful" and "causal" explanation, and the relevance of complexity theory and "part–whole analysis" to psychoanalysis. The book goes on to discuss specific forms and methods of psychoanalytical research, including the role of case studies, of outcome research, and of "grounded theory" as a key methodological resource, of which it provides a detailed example. The book concludes by outlining principles and methods for psychoanalytic research in the wider contexts of infant observational studies, society, and culture. Michael Rustin provides a unifying account of the methodological principles that underlie the generation of knowledge in psychoanalysis, in the light of recent developments in the philosophy and sociology of science. In doing so, it provides a coherent rationale for psychoanalytic investigation, which will be of value to those pursuing research in this field. Researching the Unconscious is unusual in its being based both on a deep understanding of and respect for psychoanalytical clinical practice and on its author’s wider knowledge of the philosophy and sociology of science. It is unique in its comprehensive approach to the principles of psychoanalytic research.

Psychoanalysis is often equated with Sigmund Freud, but this comparison ignores the wide range of clinical practices, observational methods, general theories, and cross-pollinations with other disciplines that characterise contemporary psychoanalytic work. Central psychoanalytic concepts to do with unconscious motivation, primitive forms of thought, defence mechanisms, and transference form a mainstay of today's richly textured contemporary clinical psychological practice. In this landmark collection on philosophy and psychoanalysis, leading researchers provide an evaluative overview of current thinking. Written at the interface between these two disciplines, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychoanalysis contains original contributions that will shape the future of debate. With 34 chapters divided into eight sections covering history, clinical theory, phenomenology, science, aesthetics, religion, ethics, and political and social theory, this Oxford Handbook displays the enduring depth, breadth, and promise of integrating philosophical and psychoanalytic thought. Anyone interested in the philosophical implications of psychoanalysis, as well as philosophical challenges to and re-statements of psychoanalysis, will want to consult this book. It will be a vital resource for academic researchers, psychoanalysts and other mental health professionals, graduates, and trainees.

Weaving together state-of-the-art research, theory, and clinical insights, this book provides a new understanding of the unconscious and its centrality in human functioning. The authors review heuristics, implicit memory, implicit learning, attribution theory, implicit motivation, automaticity, affective versus cognitive salience, embodied cognition, and clinical theories of unconscious functioning. They integrate this work with cognitive neuroscience views of the mind to create an empirically supported model of the unconscious. Arguing that widely used psychotherapies--including both psychodynamic and cognitive approaches--have not kept pace with current science, the book identifies promising directions for clinical practice. Winner--American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize (Theory)

This collection of selected papers explores psychoanalytic technique, exemplifying Fred Busch’s singular contribution to this subject, alongside the breadth and depth of his work. Covering key topics such as what is unique about psychoanalysis, interpretation, psychic truth, the role of memory and the importance of the analyst's reveries, this book brings together the author's most important work on this subject for the first time. Taken as a whole, Busch’s work has provided an updated Freudian model for a curative process through psychoanalysis, along with the techniques to accomplish this. Meticulous in providing the theoretical underpinnings for their conclusions, these essays depict how Busch, as a humanist, has continuously championed what in retrospect seems basic to psychoanalytic technique but which has not always been at the forefront of our thinking: the patient’s capacity to hear, understand and emotionally feel interventions. Presenting a deep appreciation for Freudian theory, this book also integrates the work of analysts from Europe and Latin America, which has been prevalent in his recent work. Comprehensive and clear, these works focus on clinical issues, providing numerous examples of work with patients whilst also presenting concise explanations of the theoretical background. In giving new meaning to basic principles of technique and in reviving older methods with a new focus, A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Technique will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists.

In Cruelty, Sexuality, and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis, Touria Mignotte explores an innovative conception of cruelty. Integrating the life sciences and quantum physics, this approach shows that cruelty structures the living just as much as the unconscious, and makes it possible to integrate the main psychoanalytic currents, notably Freud, Lacan, Winnicott, Klein, and the thinkers of autism, while renewing the place of psychoanalysis as a human science. The life sciences have given us an insight into the murderous struggles that unfold before the primitive environment consents to the emergence of life as a "primary destructive impulse." This book offers a deep exploration of this primitive cruelty and of the processes of pairing that it induces: Mignotte hypothesizes that cruelty pertains to the dynamics of the void from which the human being originates, and whose creative expansion manifests itself, at each birth, as a sexual excess threatening the primary oneness. Cruelty, Sexualit,y and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis thus posits the necessity of revisiting the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis within a new epistemological framework developed from the laws of the dynamics of the void and based on an analysis of the development of these dynamics through clinical symptomatology. From this new perspective, this book suggests that the narcissistic psychoses and contemporary pathologies may be seen as the enactment of the murder and incest induced by the jouissance of the primitive void. This book calls on psychoanalysts to become the testamentary witnesses of the inhuman sexuality of the primitive void and to allow themselves to be affected by the ferment of destabilization and dissociation from which it proceeds.

In this pioneering textbook, a master psychoanalyst makes his innovative "field work" teaching technique available to seasoned practitioners and budding students alike. They can, figuratively, sit outside the one-way mirror to watch Dr. Volkan treat patients with neurotic, borderline, and narcissistic personalities, from start to finish, using both modern and classical psychoanalytic techniques. Dr. Volkan not only explains what he is doing while he is doing it, but he also asks and answers the perennial questions so common to analytic work: what am I treating? what do I say? and why does it work? Fascinating and extraordinarily illuminating, Psychoanalytic Technique Expanded is unique in offering an intimate view of updated analytic treatment for an array of disorders. With an engaging narrative style that takes the reader into the depths of analytic work, this textbook can be effectively incorporated into psychiatry and psychology training programs as well as into advanced psychotherapy training programs and beginning technique courses for psychoanalytic candidates.

In this important book, one of the world's foremost psychoanalysts provides the clinician with tools to diagnose and treat severe cases of personality disorder, including borderline and narcissistic structures. Dr. Kernberg not only describes techniques he has found useful in clinical practice but also further develops theories formulated in his previous work and critically reviews other recent contributions. "A splendid book . . . of great value for anyone involved in psychotherapy with patients suffering from one or another variety of personality disorder, as well as for anyone who is teaching or doing research in this field. . . . An outstandingly fine and valuable book.--Harold F. Searles, M.D., Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease "Kernberg is a synthesizing, creative eclectic on the contemporary psychoanalytic and psychodynamic scene, broadly based in theory and in practice, a powerful intelligence, a prolific writer, and a man of ideas....This is a challenging and provocative book."--Alan A. Stone, M.D., American Journal of Psychiatry "A major work that brings together in one volume a host of clinical insights into people with a variety of severe personality disorders.... Anyone who has attempted to work with patients with severe personality disorders will be rewarding by studying this book." --Robert D. Gillman, Psychoanalytic Quarterly